After an operational period in driving a car, when the headlights were turned on, when the car is stopped for a while, as the motorist goes away on foot, he or she may forget to turn off the headlights. Such forgetful times occur, for example, when the trip ends in a daylight period but commenced in a nighttime period, or ends in a lighted parking light, or ends after driving through a daytime storm with the headlights turned on. If the motorist is away long enough, and other persons are not able to help because the vehicle is locked, upon his or her return the battery power may not be sufficient to start the engine.
This happening has occurred throughout the years and previously there have been many inventions directed to avoiding or to lessen the effect of this forgetfulness. Some of these inventions have included additions to the circuitry of the ignition and lighting circuits, whereby alarms and/or signal lights have been activated. Also, upon the removal of the ignition key, after a time delay, the headlights are turned off. Moreover, upon the removal of the ignition key, the headlights are turned off and the parking lights are turned on. These are some of the built in inventions which are relied upon.
Also there have been other inventions designed for the removable placement of a headlight reminder apparatus in a vehicle, without changing the vehicle, such as Howard J. Dinstbir's warning device for vehicles, illustrated and described in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,237,330 in 1966, wherein a small sign, reading lights on, is supported on a suction cup, which is in turn placed on a dashboard of a vehicle. Moreover, Robert Splan in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,260 in 1980, disclosed his automobile headlight reminder device, which is suspended from a headlight switch, when the headlights are off, and then transferred to a door lock, when the headlights are on, whereby the door lock may not be utilized until the reminder is removed, and the motorist in doing so, remembers to turn off the headlights. Also, Lila, Richard, and Craig Walker in their U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,479 in 1980, illustrate and describe their headlight reminder. When the headlights are not on, a removable "Velcro" R attached knob is attached to the headlight switch. When the headlights are turned on, this knob is moved to a location such as a door handle, where it will be noticed as a reminder to the motorist to turn off the headlights before he or she leaves the vehicle.
Although these prior inventions have been available, there remains a need for such reminders, as most vehicles today still are not as yet equipped with any reminders which have been widely adopted by motorists.